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Honda Redraws Famous Geoglyph From Nazca With NSX

Honda wanted to showcase the SH-AWD technology found in the new NSX, so the brand decided to recreate the famous “Hummingbird” from the Nazca Desert.
Honda NSX redraws "Hummingbird" 14 photos
Photo: Honda
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If the name does not sound familiar to you, we are referring to something that is called "geoglyph" by specialists, and that is found in the Nazca Desert in Peru. Long story short, this is a large artwork that can only be viewed in full from a high altitude, and it was created roughly 1,500 or 2,000 years ago.

The Nazca Lines were made with shallow trenches, which have had the top layer of dark pebbles removed. The process has exposed a lighter-colored layer of earth, which is visible from high altitude. Peru’s Nazca Desert’ particular climate enabled the exposed ground to develop a protective layer that shielded the drawn lines from erosion and distortion.

Archeologists and historians credit the Nazca people for drawing these lines, which were made with simple tools. Other figures include a condor, a monkey, and a spider.

Honda decided that a 1:1 scale was too small for its project, so they made it ten times bigger than the original. The Japanese brand used a high-resolution image of the original Nazca lines to trace and digitizethe “Hummingbird,” and then produced a set of GPS coordinates that were utilized by the driver of an NSX.

The design employs over 30 hairpins, so the whole attempt had to be done correctly from the first try so that no error would disturb the drawing process. Honda went to the El Mirage salt flats in California, where they GPS-mapped the surface to find the best place for its automotive artwork.

The driver received the route on the vehicle’s GPS, as well as on a head-mounted display. The result is a 601,195 square-meter artwork, which is ten times bigger than the original Hummingbird in Nazca. Instead of being 93 meters long, the one made by Honda is 965 meters long.

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About the author: Sebastian Toma
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Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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